Best of 2000: Best Place To Buy A Mexican Fountain

Estrella del Norte
Mercado de Artisanas, 2nd Street, corner of Avenida Aldrete, Tijuana
011-526-685-3667

The best values are in the traditional Mexican designs, and they feel like real fountains, when they're as high as you and fill your garden with vague classical-romantic shapes and the bubbling of water. At the North Star, they have five-foot-high carved stone fountains from $250. But the best value is the concrete fountains. A five-foot, four-layer conch-shell design costs $140, a slightly smaller one $110. A fantasy woodland fountain with a bear holding a fish is $120. A two-foot single dish is $15. The biggest is a seven-foot monster with four dishes with ground-level pool surround blocks, for $260. The stone fountains are carved in Guadalajara. The concrete ones are cast in Playas de Tijuana. They say the concrete will last just as long. The good news: you're saving up to $5000 on San Diego County-sold fountains. The bad news: you have to lug it back north yourself.